Elves of all ages have been wrapping gifts for those less fortunate this week in preparation for the RAINE Foundation’s 17th annual Christmas gift delivery to thousands of Raritan Bayshore area children.

Volunteers are welcome to join the wrapping party Monday through Wednesday, December 17-19, at 2931 Route 35 N in Hazlet (the former Franks Nursery building) from 5 p.m till 9 p.m.

With the nation’s economy now in a very good phase, it’s time to give back to those who are truly in need this holiday season. In good times and bad — generosity is always necessary.

And besides, your efforts at giving can “jumpstart a cascade of generosity through your community.” According to a report from the Greater Good Science Center, “giving is contagious. When we give, we don’t only help the immediate recipient of our gift. We also spur a ripple effect of generosity through our community.”

The following Monmouth County-based charitable/volunteer/service organizations (along with some worthy arts groups) help the needy as well as the community at large. When it comes to giving be sure to remember them this holiday season.

IThe U.S.Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a movement permit to Mr. S. Claus of the North Pole yesterday, just in time for Claus’s annual global voyage, according to an announcement by USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue.

We are pleased to report that @USDA_APHIS has issued a movement permit to a Mr. S. Claus of the North Pole to allow entry and exit of reindeer during the evening hours of December 24th and early morning hours of December 25th.

Over three hundred volunteers showed up at the former K-Mart on Route 35 in Hazlet last night. 37 of the men donned Santa suits, whitened their brows and reddened their cheeks. 50 or elves dressed in red and green got off the shelf to join the Santas and the other volunteers in loading up the fire trucks and vans with toys and bicycles that they had donated, sorted, wrapped and assembled over the prior two weeks. Then they all headed out in 37 different directions to deliver the gifts to 340 Bayshore families, from South Amboy to Highlands, and a side trip to Long Branch. Over 800 kids received gifts from Santa and his RAINE dears last night. Read the rest of this entry »

Giving has been the gift for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of RAINE Foundation volunteer over the last three weeks as they gave their time and effort to ensure over 400 families and an estimated 2600 children from throughout Monmouth County have Christmas gifts this holiday season.

Crazy Christmas Light Show 2013 Portions of the over-the-top annual Christmas Light Show that attracts thousands of visitors to a quiet Wall Township neighborhood each year. WALL TOWNSHIP – An over-the-top holiday tradition, complete with rocking music, strobe lighting and 20-foot-high flames, is scheduled to begin its 2014 show schedule this weekend. The annual Christmas Light… Read the rest of this entry »

By Ernesto Cullari, also published in the December 15, 2011 edition of the triCityNews

I don’t know anything about football, except that I like cheerleaders and half-time shows. As for the game, it just gets in the way of my ability to appreciate those gracious and hardworking women on the field. With that said, I’m not even sure who this guy Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos is. What I am sure of is that he’s quickly becoming a legendary quarterback and, according to Tebow himself, he owes every one of his glorious game performances to Christ Jesus and to his teammates, facts that he is consistently quick to point out.

God is a funny topic, because for too many people in this nation God and His Son Jesus are offensive. Take former Broncos’ QB Jake Plummer for example. During a radio interview in November, with XTRA Sports 910 in Phoenix, when asked about Tim Tebow, Plummer stated:

“Tebow, regardless of whether I wish he’d just shut up after a game and go hug his teammates, I think he’s a winner and I respect that about him,” remarked Plummer. “I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I’ll like him a little better. I don’t hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every single time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff….Like you know, I understand dude where you’re coming from…”

In a nation where people are quick to either pat themselves on the back for the smallest of achievements or deprecate (and likely medicate) themselves over their personal shortcomings and where celebrities and athletes wallow in vainglory, Tebow’s expression of faith in Jesus is humbling. When a person with such great accomplishments refuses to take the credit for himself first, but instead thanks God and his amazing teammates, it is a clear indication of where true glory, long-suffering and meaningful victory comes from. It all comes from the providence of God.

But we are a nation at war with God. Nothing is sacred. We have lost our greatness along with our reverence of God. Look at the evidence. We hate and abuse our greatest of His blessings, our children, by killing them in the womb. And those that survive, we degrade them by sexualizing them in our popular culture. In defiance man’s institutions vainly protect child abusers so as not to sully their reputations. Tim Tebow is a man who knows his place in the world and the value of his life’s blessings. By placing God first in his sights his victory on the field has proper perspective. He is careful to point out that God probably isn’t concerned about the outcome of Broncos’ football games, he acknowledges that God’s work through the faithful can accomplish many great things, least of which is a win on the field. Tebow knows that God is concerned with humility and character.

All across America this Christmas season public schools, city halls and other public settings, once adorned with heartwarming reminders of the Lord’s birth are carefully obscuring any indication of it. Schools no longer celebrate Christmas they celebrate the winter festival. We once were a nation that revered God for blessing us with Liberty. However, groups like the ACLU and others have turned us into a nation that fears litigation over outward expressions of the very traditions and practices that made us a great. A nation without its culture is no more. The indivisible has become divisible.

One of the forefathers of Conservatism, Christopher Dawson once wrote, “It is the religious force which supplies the cohesive force which unifies a society and a culture…a society which has lost its religion becomes sooner or later a society which has lost its culture.”

Take this from a guy who hasn’t been to church on time in a decade. I sit in the last row, in the seat closest to the door and most of the time I forget my Bible in the trunk of my car. We are a nation of ungrateful, profligate spenders with our hands out looking for a piece of someone else’s glory. From the self-righteous Occupy Wall Streeters to the Wall Streeters themselves who willingly received taxpayer bailout money all the way down to little ol’ me, it’s time we kept our hands to ourselves and thanked God as one nation for what we do have.

By putting God back into our culture, back into our daily conversations and back into our moral fabric all things (a great many wonderful things) will once again be possible.